The German Social Survey monitors social trends in Germany. The central topics of the 1996 survey were attitudes toward ethnic minority groups, immigrant groups, and foreigners living in Germany. The survey elicited respondents' attitudes toward dual citizenship, the civil rights of foreigners, perceived cultural differences, advocating the teaching of Islam in the schools, various manifestations of anti-Semitism, and the distribution of foreigners in East and West Germany. Respondents were... (more info)

The German Social Survey monitors social trends in Germany. The central topics of the 1996 survey were attitudes toward ethnic minority groups, immigrant groups, and foreigners living in Germany. The survey elicited respondents' attitudes toward dual citizenship, the civil rights of foreigners, perceived cultural differences, advocating the teaching of Islam in the schools, various manifestations of anti-Semitism, and the distribution of foreigners in East and West Germany. Respondents were also queried on the first, second, or third country of citizenship and origin for themselves, for their spouse or living partner, and for their parents, and immigrants were asked how long they had been living in Germany. In addition, attitudes toward family, marriage, and partnership, the roles of women in the family, and the importance of special learning goals for children were collected. Other items probed for respondents' perceptions of the state and government, including attitudes toward various forms of protest against the government as well as toward increasing or decreasing government expenditures for environmental protection, public health, defense, unemployment, pensions, and culture. Additional topics included the economic situation and fear of unemployment, abortion, social inequality, political interests, things that a German can be proud of, and the Inglehart Index of respondent materialism/post-materialism category, coded according to which national goals the respondent thought should be given top priority: maintaining order and protecting freedom of speech, or giving people more say in important government decisions and fighting rising prices. Basic demographic characteristics of respondents were also collected, such as age, gender, education, occupation, religion, personal and household income, household size and composition, and marital status.